If only Hawk's 17" mesh wheels were 17x8 instead of 17x9... then they could take the 17" Gatorbacks, which could look pretty cool on a Firebird.

As for 16" reproductions, I don't foresee them happening for a long time.

 

I never even thought of that with the 17's, that's an awesome idea!!!

 

Might work with IROC repros, but the only IROC repros I seem to encounter are chrome.

 

I can't find the 17" gatorbacks online anymore... does anybody know if they're still produced?

 

Assuming you find a set of the 245/45R17s, you can fit them on 17x9s, it's not even a stretch.

 

I spoke with John Kelsey via email recently. He said that they will not be available in 2016 and will take more patience to get these to market.

I'm curious, does anyone have any contacts at Coker or anywhere else that manufacturers vintage tires? I'd like to see if its possible to have another manufacturer make these.

 

Great minds think alike! I contacted Coker a year or two ago because I got tired of waiting for Kelsey. I don't think they ever responded to me.

 

Why is this so hard? It would seem to be a no brainer from a business standpoint!

 

From out standpoint, yes it probably seems like a no brainer. But from their standpoint, they have risk, and sometimes businesses do not want to take the risk in fear of losing their butt. There was 1.6 Million 3rd Gens made, and only a portion (about 10%) of those used the Tire. Granted there is an entire group of Corvette owners that might use them, but 4th Gen Corvettes are almost worthless in comparison to the 3rd Gen.

Pontiacs side that might use those tires as a true restoration
Formula - 54739
GTA - 36817
Trans Am - 45774 (Roughly 1/3 all Trans Ams from 85-92 had WS6) Might be high

So you have a total 137,330 Firebirds, and 163,026 Camaros that could use those tires.

You compound that with the total number of remaining cars, and then deduct those that could care less, and that leaves you with about, possibly 2500 people at BEST that might consider getting those tires. They would only be for those die-hard 3rd genner that just had to have them.

It may not be a good move financially to set up and remake them.

 

It seems like hardly anyone is making a performance tire for 16" wheels anymore. How well would a really poor, dated design, for an unpopular wheel size really sell? The way things are now, a person would have to be nutty to not consider going to a bigger wheel to take advantage of competitively priced tires that will perform better.

 

yes everyone should change their wheels away from stock.
cost wise that makes more sense. I would hate to keep my low mileage GTA stock and I want to add the cost of new larger wheels and tires combined

 

The people looking to buy this tire most likely will not be hitting up road courses, drag strips, ect, ect, ect..
For the most part they will be on garage queens. (mine will still be making 11s everywhere)
However, if the tread compound was updated, I'd bet they could do ok against modern designs.

 

Agreed. The ones they repopped for the Mustang market have a modern compound if I'm not mistaken.

 

Going to a 17" has some benefits,
1) Better tire selection,
2) Better handling,
3) A Few wheels I like the look better

17" Disadvantage
1) Chances are you will have to use spacers because the 4th Gen and Corvette used a different offset.
2) The ride of a 17" wheel is more harsh.

Sticking with a 16" Wheel Benefits
1) Better Ride
2) Stock Appearing
3) The appearance of the Stock black cross laced rims on a Camaro, Trans Am or Formula is hard to beat.

16" Disadvantages
1) Not as good of handling
2) harder to find

 

Yes I spoke with them as well and yes they confirmed they used a modern compound

 

It would be cool to have Gatorbacks for restoration purposes

 

darn right!

 

That is such a good thing, I think it would be absolutely silly to throw away 20 years of research and development in safer and better rubber technology and just use some old formula, that many state was hard and had very bad traction back in the day.

I would probably buy a set for my 89 Convertible... It needs tires anyway.

 

Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting everyone upgrade their wheels. My comment was manifold. 1) 16" Performance tires have a limited market. We can't expect them to just jump in and manufacture something that's not going to sell. 2) We ARE nutty about our cars. 3) Repro Gatorbacks will probably cost as much or more than a set of aftermarket wheels and matching performance tires.

As much as I hate, hate, hate, all things Goodyear... I'd be tempted by even Gatorbacks at this point since there are so few 245/50ZR16 tires available. I'd much rather have the options that were available 15 years ago in the same size, but I really can't stand the options available now.

 

Drew,
I didn't take it that way, I was just throwing out there that there are pros and cons to either side of the story.

 

Have we been wasting our time trying to get Kelsey to reproduce Gatorbacks in our size? It says here that the 225/60/15 Gatorbacks are manufactured by Goodyear.
http://www.lucasclassictires.com/225...Gyr2256015.htm

 

Kelsey describes itself as the "Exclusive Distributor" of reproduction Goodyear antique and performance tires, so it's possible that Goodyear actually produces the tires. And such a joint venture points to an obvious affiliation between the two companies. But Kelsey is its own company with its own manufacturing plant, and neither Kelsey nor Goodyear claim that Goodyear owns Kelsey, so I'd think Kelsey does reproduce the tires for Goodyear. But to a vendor, for all intents and purposes, the tires are "manufactured by Goodyear."

Here's a bit of history on Kelsey Tire:
http://www.carsandparts.com/en/tech/...ng-kelsey.html

Kelsey already offers the 3rdgen's original Goodyear Eagle GT in the Performance 3 category:
http://www.kelseytire.com/pages/preformancetires3.html

And the Gatorback for the 80s Mustangs(which could also be used on 3rdgens with 15" wheels and would probably be the best "performance" tire available in such a size) is in the Performance 4 category:
http://www.kelseytire.com/pages/preformancetires4.html

But Kelsey is obviously not a large company with unlimited budgets, so if those reproductions aren't selling well, and I'd suspect they are not, especially at such prices, given the "frugal" nature of 80s Mustang and 3rdgen owners, thus considering that okfoz's calculations are probably reasonably accurate, then it's not likely that the 245/50VR/ZR16 will ever be available, sadly.

 

I think you might be right, in that Goodyear produces the tires, not Kelsey.

The more I search for Kelsey, I find no evidence of a manufacturing facility, just a sales facility and an antique car museum. So Kelsey's statement on its website about it being the "Exclusive Distributor" probably means exactly that: Goodyear produces the antique/classic tires, probably based upon data/projections provided by Kelsey, and Kelsey handles the sales of the tires.

So, yes, it's probably Goodyear that we need to be hitting-up.

 

$305 EACH I think I had less than $1225.00 (Hey Look Christmas (Think about the numbers) in my 17" Wheels and Tires when I got them.

 

If I have time today, I'm sending an email to Goodyear.

 

And that is why a 245/50R16 Gatorback repro will probably never happen. If they could bring them to market at a price that would be competitive they might sell a decent quantity, but only the diehards are going to spend over $300 PER tire.

 

if you find an appropriate address please let us know.

 

I just went on the Goodyear website and sent it from there.

I also sent them a link to this thread.

 

OK. Thanks I just did likewise.

 

Got a response from Goodyear:



From: goodyear_cr@goodyear.com on 04/19/2016 04:12 PM

Sent by: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Consumer Relations 728 200
Innovation Way Akron, OH 44316-0001 Voice #: 800.321.2136 Fax #:
330.796.6829

Thank you for contacting our web site and choosing Goodyear for your
replacement tire needs. I will forward your email to Kelsey Tire for
consideration.

Jennifer - Consumer Relations

 

and I got something different....come on guys lets change their minds?

From: goodyear_cr@goodyear.com on 04/19/2016 04:01 PM

Sent by: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Consumer Relations 728 200
Innovation Way Akron, OH 44316-0001 Voice #: 800.321.2136 Fax #:
330.796.6829

Thank you for contacting our web site and for your interest in Goodyear
tires. There are no plans to bring the gatorback tire back into production
at this time. We have forwarded your email to our Marketing Department for
consideration.


Barbara
Consumer Relations

 

I wonder how many emails to the Goodyear "Marketing Department" before someone there takes notice?

 

I have several different emails lets see what we can do!

 

I'm happy to ping them too. Send me the email address if you get a chance. I really want to buy 3 sets!

 

https://www.goodyear.com/en-US/company/contact-goodyear

 

Erik, I'm not sure if you should mention Kelsey or not. I did in my email and that's probably why Goodyear forwarded to them. I have literally sent Kelsey 20 emails over the years - I think they know we want them. Perhaps reaching out to Goodyear might be a better strategy.

 

I think hammering them with emails will actually greatly reduce our chances.

Kelsey has had a pair of my tires off my '89 GTA for a couple of years now. Interest in production seemed to drop off significantly once their Facebook page got bombarded by people, specifically about this size application...

I think the multiple e-mails will hurt more than help...

 

How so?

That FB page we were bombarding, as it turns out, had nothing to do with Kelsey tire.

 

Just my opinion...

 

kinda close on the tread pattern with this cheap o tire brand.. (I'm sure the tire quality is outstanding too)

 

That's a knock-off for sure!

We need the VR & the ZR but I would take either for sure!

I'm in for the e-mails.

 

I could use 2 sets of ZRs myself plus maybe a couple extra sets of rears.....

 

If you & I ever meet up, it's going to be bad!

 

11s championship of the world !!!!! haha

 

Effen A! And Goodyear ought to sponsor it with new Gatorbacks!

 

I'd be good with that!

 

The majority of consumers interested in buying these tires would be the ones who want the correct make/model of tire on their cars for originality purposes on cars that are basically for show, I presume.

I've talked with old school mechanics, tire guys and whatnot and some familiar with the "Gatorback" style tires are telling me that those tires weren't really great handling tires, primarily/especially on wet road conditions. Can anyone verify if this is accurate or not, who actually has experience driving a third gen on Gatorbacks?

 

I cannot recall anyone stating that the gatorback tires were great in wet weather. Of course anyone wanting to spend that much on a set of tires, really is not interested in driving in the rain. Keep in mind that no 3rd gen had traction control, or ABS, or any of the standard things that make new cars so easy to drive.
Just remember that if you put someone that can drive a C7 good into a 3rd gen they would be a disaster, but take someone that can drive a 3rd gen good into a C7 and they would be great. Technology has aided in making the bad drivers even better to where new cars literally are starting to drive themselves. We do not have those things that make it easy to drive it is all feel.

 

Had them on m 89 formula 350 from day 1 till they discontinued them. (on to GSCs the F1s)
Car was a daily driver for 10-15 yrs. My tires never made it to old hard dried out age tho.
Drove in the rain, snow and ice. For a summer only tire it didn't do to bad until the tread was thin. Like every summer tire, you need to be a little more careful in adverse conditions.

 

Tires performed great when new. Not so great after they got to be 10+ years old and hard. The Gatorback was developed from Goodyear's Formula One rain tire. They were only okay in the rain, but great in the dry.